Der Harms - Kosmische Kiffermusik Vol. 1
- Sunburst
- Die Hälfte vom Ja
- The Ghost
- Winterreise
- Wellenklang
- Blues 2.0
- Sure
- Carpet
- Wunderbar
Hamburg based musician Hauke Harms should be known to most listeners as a founding member and driving force behind the cult band "Girls Under Glass". Already in the previous band "Calling Dead Red Roses" "DerHarms", as he likes to call himself, had the electronic reins in his hand.
Despite his extensive band activities, he has always had the desire to release a slo project under his name "DerHarms". However, the first attempt in 1994 resulted in a successful collaboration with GUG colleague Volker Zacharias under the name TRAUMA. At least 3 albums resulted from this liaison.
But the second attempt a few years later finally brought out the first album "Music4Cars" in 2011 under the name "DerHarms". This album has only been released digitally on BandCamp so far.
It then took another 9 years before an album on CD with the title "Neun schöne Lieder” (engl. Nine Beautiful Songs) was finally released in 2020, which was recorded both in the home studio in the country and in California (USA). The result was a successful melange of gloomy Dark Wave elements, technoid components and a romantic Krautrock attitude to life, which fermented into a dominant element in the latest work "Kosmische Kiffermusik Vol 1 (engl. Cosmic Reefer Music Vol. 1) and a kind of liberation from the previously existing patterns of structured compositions in one ingenious improvised cocktail from different electronic directions merged.
The title says it all, since a large part of the music was recorded in a rather uncontrolled state. As already noticeable on the predecessor, the influence of the 70s is now getting bigger. The Berlin and Düsseldorf schools can no longer be denied (Klaus Schulze, early Kraftwerk) and that's okay too! The succession is clear. Harms has taken over!
Purists and fanatical advocates of both styles may cry out because both styles are interwoven in places, but the result speaks for itself.
Incidentally, "DerHarms" attaches great importance to the fact that the majority of the sounds were created on his original electronic musical instruments, some of which seem like a museum, with the well-known charming wooden panels from that era.
Release: 2021
Label: sireena